STORRS — There was peace in his demeanor, an obvious realization that Jim Calhoun was more than prepared to walk away from 40 years spent coaching college basketball. It was time.

Plainly and unequivocally, Calhoun was ready to hand the UConn reins he held for 26 years over to Kevin Ollie.

Calhoun didn't spend his time at the podium Thursday on the Gampel Pavilion floor waxing poetic about his career. Not once did he mention any of the three national championships he won with the Huskies. There was no talk of Big East championships, former Huskies in the NBA.

There were thank-yous, but no good-byes. Calhoun officially announced his retirement in typical form, straightforwardly and to the point, once you were able to get through the rambling.

It was much less about a departure than it was about an arrival. It was Ollie, the head coach at least through April 4, who has spent just two years as an assistant coach, who stole the show with Calhoun's blessing.

That description sounds like someone who stalked the UConn sidelines for nearly three decades.

Once introduced by athletic director Warde Manuel, Ollie took to the podium and delivered an impassioned speech that made Knute Rockne's "Gipper" soliloquy feel like a sleep-inducing sermon. The 39-year-old Ollie, a native of Los Angeles who has made beating the odds an art form, brings the same type of passion and drive that defined Calhoun.

It was not lost on the many who showed up at Gampel or those watching on television. The Huskies might struggle to find some success under Ollie, but it won't be for lack of trying.

"We're going to take the stairs and not the escalator," Ollie said. "The escalator is for cowards. One step at a time. We're going to get there. Your future is not given to you. You have to take it and we're going to take it. The ship might not come in to land, but we're going to swim out to it, I promise you that."

Calhoun is leaving coaching, but he isn't going anywhere, at least for the moment. He signed a deal to remain with the school at least through March 21 as a special assistant to Manuel. He will be the central fundraiser for the planned basketball practice facility, work with Manuel to oversee Ollie's work with the basketball team and continue his work with the UConn Health Center. Upon full retirement, Calhoun will become head coach emeritus.

Ollie signed a $625,000, one-year deal that runs through April 4, but his actual compensation on the for the seven months is $384,615. At the end of the deal, Ollie will be evaluated and a determination will be made on his future as head coach, though Manuel stressed Ollie is not the interim coach. The length of the deal might seem to be a lack of commitment from the school.

Ollie, who played 13 years in the NBA despite nobody believing he would last more than 13 days in the league, doesn't care.

"Steph rejected me twice," Ollie said, referring to his wife, Stephanie. "I was used to rejection. It's going to be difficult, but that's all right. I'd rather it be difficult in the short term than easy in the long term. I'm fine with it. Let's roll our sleeves up. I wish there was a game tomorrow. Let's go.

"If it's two months, one month, this is where I want to be. Until they tell me to stop, I'm not going to stop until we conquer this, until we do it together."

Calhoun conquered it almost by himself, bringing a school in the middle of farmland to national prominence. He racked up 873 career victories and is one of just five men to win three national titles. He coached 18 first-round NBA Draft picks, 27 overall draft picks, is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, owns 10 Big East regular-season titles and seven Big East tournament trophies.

Whatever could be done in college basketball, Calhoun did it.

Yet as boisterous as he has been during the last 26 years, Calhoun somewhat quietly passed the torch. He showed little emotion in making the announcement until he came time to talk about Ollie.

Ollie stepped up, won the room and the smile never disappeared from Calhoun's face.

"If you're a media person, a player, a friend, a foe, anyone, if you don't feel like getting on board after that (speech), I mean, sheesh," former UConn assistant and current Quinnipiac head coach Tom Moore said of Ollie's speech. "He's inspiring. Everything comes straight from the heart. It's raw. He is what he is.

"He's a lot like the other guy. They just come in an entirely different package, one generation removed. He wants to fight."

Ollie emerged from the Crenshaw section of Los Angeles to play point guard for Calhoun through 1995, as much as Calhoun tried to find another player to beat him out. It never happened. Ollie said UConn felt like home when he came on his recruiting visit and witnessed Marc Suhr and Rod Sellers engage in a fight during practice.

Milkshake from the UConn Dairy Bar in hand, Ollie decided at that moment that UConn was the place for him.

Seventeen years after last playing for Calhoun and with what Calhoun called a "Ph.D. in basketball" earned during his journeyman NBA career, Ollie is now the boss at his adopted home. If he likes a fight, the coming season will be one, for the team and for himself. He has to prove something.

"In my mind, we have a long-term vision for Kevin, but it's a short-term challenge of 'I haven't seen him coach, he's never been a head coach,'" Manuel said. "This deal is a chance for me to judge him not only on the quantitative but on a lot of qualitative aspects of what it takes to be a head coach.

"I believe in Kevin or I wouldn't be up here with him in this position."

Most importantly, Calhoun believes in his hand-picked successor. He might know what he's talking about.

"You don't do what he did if you're not tough and not resilient," Calhoun said. "He's an incredibly caring person. He epitomized what we wanted in a player and now a coach. Within our family, Kevin is a really special guy.

"We're in good shape."

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